A contract clause could cost former two-division champion Conor McGregor millions in the UFC antitrust settlement case.
The antitrust lawsuit against the UFC is over. The UFC’s parent company — TKO Group Holdings — filed a disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealing that the company has settled two separate class action lawsuits with a total payout of $335 million.
The question now becomes what does this mean for the MMA fighters? Which fighters will be reimbursed, are there other provisions listed in the settlement?
It is known that the UFC added a legal waiver to its contracts in the 2017 to 2020 period, barring fighters from participating in class-action lawsuits.
Well, according to John Nash, a UFC antitrust case expert, he is estimating that up of 85 percent of the $1 billion paid to fighters between 2017 and 2020 went to those under new contracts, making them ineligible for pay adjustments.
Speaking on the ‘Hey Not The Face!’ podcast, Nash shared:
“There’s no way you get an amount that small if fighters didn’t sign waivers, the very top guys. So, you’re asking, does Conor McGregor get the money? He should get about 10 percent of whatever he earned in the (2017-2020) period. But, it seems very likely that he might get the amount that all the people that signed the waiver get, which is $3,000.”
In a $335 million dollar settlement, $3,000. is chunk change.
As to whether or not Conor McGregor would be able to do anything about it, Nash continued (h/t MMAMania):
“It would cost him a lot of money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars — perhaps even millions. Because you’d have to hire your own experts and do all the analysis and stuff the antitrust trial did again. But, go into arbitration, because truthfully, someone like McGregor, I think you could realistically make an argument that he’s owed $100 million by the UFC.”
Concluding, Nash said:
“If you’re really under a waiver, Conor McGregor and fighters like him, the very top guys — it’s it’s not financially possible for most fighters to do this. But, for the very top guys, I would think about opting out of the (2017-2020) class and going into arbitration.”
Conor McGregor has yet to respond to the class action lawsuit, perhaps because he has not received any formal information about what the settlement will hold for him.
What do you think of TKO Holdings settling the lawsuits? Do you believe fighters will get their due share?
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